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Cervélo's gigantic booth hard to miss; shows redesigned bikes

LAS VEGAS (BRAIN) — Cervélo's 40x40 booth stands out in a sea of smaller displays at Mandalay Bay. The brand hopes to capitalize on the absence of others with its redesigned bikes.

After several years' hiatus, Cervélo is back at Interbike (Booth 17198) and has one of the largest and snazziest booths on the floor. Not only that, but in the lead-in to the show, the Toronto-based company, owned by Dutch conglomerate Pon Holdings, hosted some 100 dealers for two days of riding and product presentations at Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas on Sunday and Monday. Dealers flew in from as far as Europe and Australia to test ride the new R Series of bikes there, said Janice Tsao, Cervélo's brand manager.

"This year we've really refreshed the lineup. We launched the new R Series in June, which has been re-engineered and redesigned, so everything from our R5 to R3 to R2 now incorporates both disc and rim brakes," she said. "The rest of the lineup we also refreshed with new colorways, new graphics and new components with the new Ultegra coming out. So we had a lot of new product to show this year. It was the perfect time for us to come back to the show."

The revamped R Series, though launched earlier this year, is publicly displayed for the first time here.

"The booth is definitely bigger than we've done in recent years. The way we're displaying the bikes is different, with a greater focus on rider experience," Tsao said. "We're really trying to get that message across and trying to reinforce the different categories and platforms and very specific functions for each one."

For the R Series, the revamp included geometry updates on the R5.

But aside from redesigned product, Cervélo has also brought on board a lot of new faces this year. Jesse Porter, formerly with Felt and Specialized, was hired in January as global sales director, Bill Schouman joined as North American sales manager, and Robert De Jonge as managing director for Cervélo. De Jonge was previously the brand's commercial director in Asia. So dealers will get a chance to meet them here, if they haven't.

"We've got a new team in place for sales," Tsao said. "What we're doing now is really focusing on supporting the brand. We have a global brand presence and we're trying to make sure we have integration between all of the regions."